Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.

1864. "James River, Virginia. Double-turreted monitor U.S.S. Onondaga; soldiers in rowboat." From photographs of the Federal Navy and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, 1861-1865. View full size.

November 1911. Chicopee, Massachusetts. "Group of workers in Dwight Manufacturing Co. Stanley Twarog, one of the smallest boys, 81 Park Street. Works in spinning room. Tony Soccha, shortest boy in front, overalls. Very young, 65 Exchange Street. A bobbin boy in Room 7; has been there a year." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.